LeBron James is gone from the Lakers. Some fans in Los Angeles are apparently fine with that. And Derek Fisher, a man who knows a thing or two about championship basketball in that building, has noticed.
Fisher, the former Lakers point guard who won five rings with the franchise, recently addressed the way a segment of the fanbase has reacted to James’ departure. He didn’t sugarcoat it.
“A lot of people in LA didn’t love LeBron’s time here,” Fisher said, according to Yahoo Sports. “A lot of people have celebrated [him leaving]. People have moved on.”
The context people forget
It’s easy to look at the end result and call James’ eight-year run in Los Angeles a failure. That take is lazy, but it exists. Here’s the thing people tend to gloss over: the Lakers were a mess when James showed up in 2018. They were coming off several straight losing seasons. They had whiffed on high lottery picks. The franchise had become a punchline.
Two years later, they were holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy. That doesn’t happen without James. Yes, Anthony Davis was part of that equation too. But James was the engine. The 2020 title alone should be enough to stop the nonsense about his tenure being anything short of successful. The Lakers also made another deep playoff run in 2023. That’s more than most teams get out of a superstar signing.
Still, the narrative has shifted. Some fans genuinely believe James leaving opens up better roster flexibility around Luka Doncic. The idea is that the Lakers can now build a team tailored to Doncic’s strengths without the complications that came with James’ massive presence and ball-dominant style. Whether that theory holds up is another question.
What the Lakers do now
Rob Pelinka had a busy offseason. He made a bunch of moves in free agency and on the trade market. The roster next season will look nothing like the one that finished last year. That’s by design. Whether those moves actually make the Lakers better, or just different, is something we won’t know until the games start.
But Fisher’s comments hit on something real. There is a portion of the Lakers fanbase that never fully embraced James. Maybe it was the constant drama. Maybe it was the sense that James was always looking toward his next move. Maybe it was the way his time ended, with the team stuck in no-man’s land between contending and rebuilding. Whatever it is, those fans are not hiding their relief.
James is in the Eastern Conference now. The Lakers are building around Doncic. And Fisher, for what it’s worth, seems to have noticed which way the wind is blowing.
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